


Traditions and Legacies

by Writerleft



Series: Comes Marching Home [30]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Asami is cold, Canon-Compliant, Dorks, F/F, Fluff, Korrasami Month 2016, Prompt:Cultural Education, South Pole trip, dorkily, dorking, tradition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-29
Updated: 2016-11-29
Packaged: 2018-09-02 23:04:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8686948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writerleft/pseuds/Writerleft
Summary: Shortly after agreeing to marry, Asami and Korra travel to the South Pole. Korra is coy as to why, and Asami would really appreciate knowing why she's freezing her limbs off!





	

Asami shivered in spite of her three layers of thermal clothing. Even Korra was wearing sleeves, as they worked to carve snow into blocks to build the ice house. Korra was working at three times Asami's pace; for a while Asami's competitive streak had helped her keep up, but the biting wind and her numb fingers were simply too much. Even Korra's happy humming wasn't enough to make it any better—frankly, Asami was thoroughly miserable.

Korra looked at her, and she smiled. Asami could deal with a little misery for Korra. This was obviously important to her—even if Korra was doing her typically-poor job of explaining exactly why that was.

Slowly, glacially, the dome took shape, and Korra slid the cap-piece in place, leaving a narrow hole for smoke to escape. Asami had read a bit about these, both from interest in Korra's culture and because of the clever use of resources and sturdy architecture, but it was a far sight between 'getting the idea' and being able to do it herself.

Korra ducked low and wriggled inside. Asami didn't wait, eagerly crawling in after her, if only to get out of the wind.

After the blinding, snow-intensified daylight, the inside of the ice house was forbiddingly dark. A thin crack of light peaked through the ceiling, just barely illuminating Korra as she struck flint over the kindling they'd gathered on the way.

“S-s-still no bending?” Asami asked.

“That wouldn't be doing it right,” Korra said simply.

Asami rubbed her own arms. She just had to remember that she loved her, that they were going to spend their lives together, that they wouldn't be on this glacier for very long, that they could get back to their warm bed soon and snuggle up and more. This was a small price to pay to keep Korra happy, and she loved Korra, even if it was insanely cold and dry and awful and—

A lick of flame finally caught, Korra blowing on it gently. “Asami, tend to the fire, would you? I'm gonna bring our things inside.”

Asami pulled off her mitten, and the glove underneath, crouching beside the smoldering fire and using one stick to poke at it experimentally. She'd never built a campfire before... but basically it was chemistry, right? Small pieces with relatively high surface area reacting more quickly, burning faster to set the larger pieces alight...

She concentrated on the task, the flames soon flickering large enough to thaw out her face. She took her other gloves off, warming her hands as Korra brought in the contents of their sled.

Asami pursed her lips, but said nothing. Korra would explain what they were doing out here, soon enough. She trusted Korra with her life and her heart. But not understanding was more than a little irritating.

It would come. She'd waited three years, hadn't she? She'd been living in the city she loved, shaping it as she saw fit, but Korra hadn't been there, and in a way, neither had Asami. Not until she'd seen Korra again. Considering how many awful things had happened in her life, what an unremitting disaster it had felt like, simply being stuck somewhere cold and barren with the woman she loved didn't even bear complaining about.

Still. It was _cold_. 

Gradually—faster than she'd expected, actually—the fire warmed the ice house up, enough that Korra shrugged out of her coat. A few minutes later, Asami took off one of hers, watching her fiance's muscles move in the firelight. Perhaps the seclusion would have its benefits...

Korra finished rummaging through the wood, having selected several straight branches. She set them aside, and pulled spear tips from her pack. “Spears?” Asami asked.

She nodded. “Do you know how to use them?”

That didn't exactly answer any of Asami's questions. “My self-defense coaches were very thorough, but I'm far better with a long spear than a short one. But  _why_ do we need spears, exactly?” 

Korra glanced at her, then back down at her work. “Because... I want to do this right.”

“Do _what_ right, Korra? Why are we down here?” 

She kept working at the spear, splitting the end to accept the head, then inserting it and wrapping it with sinew. Asami knew she'd been heard, recognized the set of Korra's face when she was collecting her thoughts. There were still times she'd speak rashly, blurt out whatever came to her, but more often now she'd take the time to measure her words carefully. Especially when it was something Korra knew was important.

“I love you,” Korra said. “And we're getting married.” 

“I love you too, and yes we are. The spears, though.” 

Korra took a breath. “I realized... I never asked you. We never really... neither of us actually proposed. We just sort of... agreed on it.”

Asami quirked an eyebrow. “Do... you not want—”

“Oh I'm absolutely marrying you, there's no way you're getting out of that,” Korra said firmly. “Still... I feel like we skipped something important. Weddings are a pretty low-key thing in the Southern Water Tribe, but proposals... those are serious business. When I heard you and Opal talking about how you'd always envisioned your weddings, I realized... that wasn't a thing for me. But the proposal! I always wanted to make sure to get that right.”

Asami moved around the fire, sitting beside her fiance. “I thought this was another scenic vacation. I'm... sorry. I didn't realize I missed such an important part of your customs.”

“Not everybody still does it,” Korra says. “Maybe it's a little of Mom's traditionalism, I dunno. I was... I was afraid you'd think it's silly.” 

She took Korra's hand. “The only thing I think is silly is that you didn't tell me all of this ahead of time.”

Korra smiled, and sniffed, and Asami leaned over to kiss her cheekbone. Korra's body shuddered, and not from the cold. “I don't always think straight when I think about... when I realize that we're... we're gonna be  _married_ . Like,  _MARRIED married_ .” 

Asami twined her leg between Korra's, shifting half onto Korra's lap. “I didn't know there were degrees of 'married.' But I know what you mean. We already live together, it doesn't feel like it should matter so much as it does...”

“...but it does,” Korra said, one hand tracing along Asami's back. “I want the Spirits to bless our marriage. I want the tribe to. I want the whole _world_ to know that Asami Sato is my forever girl.” 

Asami snorted. “With lines like that, who would ever leave you?”

Korra blew out her tongue.

Asami kissed her thoroughly, and felt the gesture returned in kind. Both of them sighed happily as they parted, foreheads touching. “So, what's involved in this romantic betrothal you've been imagining since you were a little girl?”

Korra chuckled. “Survival. Showing we can work together, provide for each other.”

“That doesn't sound so bad.” 

“And we have to hunt and kill a narwhalrus” 

Asami choked. “Are you serious?”

Korra just shrugged. “If I wasn't the chief's daughter, maybe we could get away with a tiger seal, and if I wasn't a bender we could get away with almost anything, though the more dangerous the animal is, the more auspicious it is for the marriage.”

Asami blinked, not exactly horrified but certainly shocked. Ritualistic hunting, in this day and age? “And... that's what the spears are for?”

Korra nodded.

Asami swallowed. “At... at what point in all this does the actual proposal happen?”

“When we're eating the heart.” 

Asami laughed. She didn't mean to, but it just came out, and...

Korra's face grew serious, but that just made the giggling harder. “It's an ancient custom, Asami. And it's not going to be easy! You shouldn't laugh—”

Asami silenced her with a quick kiss. “I'm sorry,” she said. “I was surprised, it all. I wasn't precisely expecting... well I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but considering all the skins and pelts involved in your culture it shouldn't have been a surprise.”

Korra turned a way, a classic sulk on her face.

“Hey.” Asami pulled Korra's chin back toward her. “If it's important to you, we're going to go out there and kill an entire fleet of narwhalruses.” 

Her fiance snickered. “It just needs to be one.”

“The biggest one, then.” 

“You sure? We'll have to lug it around. And I'm not supposed to use my bending.” 

Asami smirked. “Are there any rules against engineering?”

Korra grinned in return. “No, there are not.”

“Because if this is a tradition... I want _our_ hunt to go down in story and song for generations to come. I want couples, centuries from now, sitting around their fires in their ice houses, telling romantic stories about how Asami Sato and Avatar Korra's love was so great as to conquer the sea itself.” 

Korra was blushing in her irresistible way. “What, the statue of me and your last name on everything wasn't enough?”

“Nope,” Asami stated. “I won't be pleased unless we go down as one of _the_ iconic romantic couples. Like... Oma and Shu. Only less tragic.” 

Korra snickered. “What, you want people to smoosh our names together and name a city after us? 'Asara' or something?”

Asami tapped her chin. “Kor... ra...” She sounded their names out into each character. “Asa... mi. Kormi? Korraasa... Korrasami?”

Korra laughed, pulling Asami fully onto her lap. “You're a huge dork, you know that?”

“As long as our love goes down in legend, that's fine by me.” 

“The Legend of Korrasami,” Korra said, rolling her eyes. “So long as it's very, very long legend, and has a happy ending, that sounds fine by me.” 

Asami cooed happily, swooping down for another kiss.

Korra made it quick. “But before any of that, we have a narwhalrus to kill.”

“Right,” Asami said, sliding onto the ground beside her. “Hand me a spear.” 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [Visit me on my tumblr! Say hi! ](https://threehoursfromtroy.tumblr.com/)


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